First Outdoor Trip of the Year

Easter weekend saw my dad and I take to the road and head south west towards Dartmoor. It was the first opportunity I had had to get outside and hit the rocks this year. With the car loaded to the roof with boulder pads we had a quick and uneventful trip down to Exeter. Leaving the main roads we took the narrow and winding Devonshire lanes and made our way across Dartmoor to Widecombe-on-the-Moor and our destination Bonehill Rocks.

We had arranged to meet up with paraclimber’s Georgia Pilkington and Mikey Cleverdon, this is one of the thing I love about the climbing community there is always a friend or friends to join you for a climb. After meeting up we started on some easier boulders to warm up. Perfect conditions to boulder, cloudy but not to warm but most importantly dry.

We started on the Cube, unfortunately Georgia had to go but Mikey and I continued and a fair bit of time exploring the The Bridge V1 and Under the Bridge V6. Moving on to play on The Dark Side and finishing the day trying to crack the Slopey Traverse V5. It was the last climb at the end of the day that I managed, much to my delight to send it.

After a great first day we made our way to our hotel to a well earned dinner and bed before setting out in the morning to see what Hound Tor would bring.

Day 2 saw us struggling to find a car park space at a busy Hound Tor, made famous by Sherlock Holmes in Hound of the Baskerville. Finally we found a grass verge up the lane and parked up and walked up to the Tor with boulder mats on our backs and rucksacks on our fronts in true climber style.

A few hours trying various boulders and making notes to return to tackle others, such as Shark Fin and projected Cream Traverse V7 which perfectly suited my climbing style being on super slopey holds, hope to return to this one soon. We departed late afternoon to join the horrendous bank holiday traffic heading north. A good weekend and a good start to what I hope are many more trips this year.